


They Look So Pretty When They Bleed

by watcherofworlds



Series: Whumptober 2020 [11]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Blood Loss, F/M, First Aid, Near Death, Prompt Fill, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, field medicine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 06:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26967364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watcherofworlds/pseuds/watcherofworlds
Summary: Prompt fill for Whumptober Day 10 "They Look So Pretty When They Bleed"
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Series: Whumptober 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956160
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	They Look So Pretty When They Bleed

**Author's Note:**

> Please forgive any medical inaccuracies. I have no knowledge of or training in first aid

Felicity flinched at the sudden sound of a fight breaking out in her ear. With Dig out on an errand for Waller- “errands” being how they referred to the covert, highly secretive missions she would call him on with no warning, no explanation, and no option for refusal- it was just her and Oliver handling things until he returned. And of course, criminals didn’t take a break just because a member of their team was absent, but Felicity did her best not to worry. Oliver could take care of himself, and besides, he had her to watch his back.

Just as she’d managed to convince herself that she would never let anything bad happen to Oliver, something went wrong. In her ear, Felicity heard a wet, squishy sound, the kind of sound that, even though she  _ knew _ what had produced it, she didn’t want to  _ think _ about what had, followed by Oliver’s grunt and the sound of someone hitting the ground, hard, and then the comm cut out.

“Oliver?” Felicity queried, touching her fingertips to her ear to activate her comm. She was met with silence. Nothing answered her but a faint hiss of static. 

“Oliver!” she cried. Still no answer. Feeling fear start to set in, Felicity glanced at the monitor in front of her to determine Oliver’s last known location, then headed out of the Foundry, moving at a pace that was only barely not a run, knowing that every second counted in a situation like this. She had no way of knowing what might have happened to Oliver, but given the fact that he wasn’t answering his comm, it probably wasn’t anything good. Knowing  _ that _ , she paused for just a moment to grab the first aid kit on her way out the door.

Stepping into the alleyway outside of Verdant, Felicity ran to her car and yanked the driver’s side door open. Climbing inside and slamming the door behind her, she caught a glimpse of the bloodstain on the back seat and felt her stomach twist. There was a very real possibility that she would have to haul an unconscious and bleeding Oliver back to the Foundry alone for a second time. Only this time, Dig wouldn’t be there to help her when she got there. Frack.

Forcing herself to put it from her mind, Felicity drove with a white-knuckled grip on her steering wheel, making course corrections every so often to follow the map to Oliver’s last location displayed on her phone screen. Time seemed to race past and drag by all at once, and it simultaneously felt like hours and mere moments before she reached her destination. Feeling apprehensive, she grabbed the first aid kit from the passenger seat and headed inside.

Almost immediately, Felicity saw the aftermath of the fight she’d heard on the comms- debris and unconscious black clothed men lay scattered all around. Troublingly, there was no sign of Oliver, further confirming her fear that something bad had happened to him. Searching around for some clue, some sign, of where Oliver might be, Felicity spotted several spots of blood staining the concrete floor and felt an icy dread spread through her. She knew immediately, without needing to do anything to confirm it, that that blood was Oliver’s. It made a trail toward the back of the building, and she followed it without hesitation, holding tight to the first aid kit, as much as she could feel her dread increasing with each step she took. Whatever had happened, she needed to move. She needed to know.

Eventually, she emerged through a back door and into an alleyway that ran along behind the building. What she saw there made her feel as though the world had been yanked out from under her feet- Oliver, lying slumped against the wall in a pool of his own blood. 

“Oliver!” she cried, running to his side. 

_ Oh God _ , she thought.  _ Is he… _ She couldn’t finish the thought, and instead pressed her fingers to the side of his neck to feel for a pulse. She found one, weak and thready but there, and she would have felt relieved had the situation not still been so dire.

Spotting the gaping stab wound in Oliver’s stomach, the source of the blood, Felicity pressed her hands over it, trying desperately to staunch the bleeding. Blood continued to well up between her fingers, staining them red, and she felt panic start to set in.

“No, no, no, no, no, please no,” she mumbled frantically, pressing on the wound even harder, but to no avail. Oliver was going to die right here in this alleyway, right in front of her, while she tried so desperately to save him.

“Felicity…?” she heard him mutter suddenly, and her head shot up to lock eyes with him. His bright blue eyes were clouded, his gaze unfocused, whether from pain or blood loss, Felicity couldn’t tell.

“I’m here,” she said. “I can’t stop it, Oliver. I can’t stop the bleeding. I can’t save-”

“It’s going to be alright,” Oliver interjected. “I promise.”

“How can you?” Felicity cried, aware that she sounded frantic but not caring. “You’re going to bleed out in this alleyway, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it!”

“It’s going to be alright,” Oliver repeated, “because you’re here, and I trust you to help me. You can do this, Felicity, I promise. Now, help me get my jacket off.” Felicity did as he said, fumbling with the buckles that held his hood on over it for a moment before she managed to get them undone, strip it away, and then do the same with the jacket, watching as Oliver wadded it up and pressed it over the wound in his stomach.

“Now open the first aid kit,” he said, his voice low and commanding and steady, grounding her, and his eyes locked with hers, keeping her focused. She did, and waited for the next step.

“Find the needle and thread,” Oliver told her. She did, then asked. “What now?”

“Now I need you to suture the wound closed,” Oliver said. When Felicity started to protest, he interjected, “I can’t reach it well enough to do it myself. You have to do this, Felicity. If you don’t, I’ll die. Do you understand?” Felicity nodded fearfully and set to work. Oliver winced at each pass of the needle through his flesh, and Felicity felt tears welling up in her eyes to see him in so much pain, but at last, the work was done. She managed with some difficulty to help him to his feet, and they made their way back through the building and out to her car.

Neither of them spoke until they were well on the way back to the Foundry.

“Your jacket’s ruined,” Felicity said quietly. It was hardly relevant in the grand scheme of things, but it was all that came to her mind.

“It doesn’t matter,” Oliver replied. “I can always get a new one. The hood is what has sentimental value.” They drove in silence for a while longer, then he said, “You saved my life, Felicity. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” Felicity replied, shaking her head. “It wasn’t as if I could let you die.”


End file.
